CASA Chef School

Chefs consider graduates from even the most expensive culinary schools newbies to the profession. As such, upon getting hired, these newcomers start at the bottom and have to work their way up in order to gain insight into the real ins-and-outs of professional cooking and restaurant practices. CASA, The Apprentice Culinary School of the Arts understands this. Our master-chef-designed program works in accord with the way the culinary industry actually operates. Our intense culinary program or chef school matches students with well-respected, highly experienced chefs inside of real, working restaurants for curriculum-backed training that covers the same foundations one learns in culinary school but from within the real world of cooking. Because of this, students build a holistic understanding of the work while also receiving direct instruction on the foundations and practices of the craft.
CASA’s immersive externship methodology enables its students to build experience and practicable skills and knowledge in tandem. Many graduates from colleges and private school programs, that can cost tens of thousands more, have been educated in a talk-down, lecture-oriented manner. Because of this, they often graduate with little to no workable, integrated skillsets. While they may have an academic understanding of cookery and the very same classic French and American techniques included in our chef-created curriculum, upon entry into the field they discover they lack the hands-on skills they need to do the work effectively.
Recent developments in culinary education have proven expensive, lecture-based instruction can be highly inefficient and leave graduates poorly prepared for gainful employment in the restaurant, baking, and hospitality industries. The mentored-apprenticeship approach we take to culinary training, or chef school, is actually much closer to the way chefs became chefs for hundreds of years. In France, persons who wanted to learn the fine arts of cooking would work as a stagiaire, meaning apprentice or trainee. They would then learn the craft on the job, by assisting various chefs, advancing from more mundane tasks to more advanced ones over time. Upon completion, the apprentice had developed a thorough understanding of the practices, techniques, and realities of the craft. This is learning through doing, though direct interaction, oversight and conversation with those in the know. CASA works off of this age-old standard and reinforces it with planned lessons, an in-depth curriculum, and even career counseling. With us, apprentices are ready to graduate in about six to nine months, depending on their schedule.
With CASA, the reading and preparatory lessons you complete on your own time directly inform you for the on-the-job training you receive, hands-on with your chef mentor. This includes training in all the dry and moist heat cooking methods, menu philosophy and planning, soups, stocks, consommés, the mother sauces, knife skills, basic butchery, cost control procedures, team management, back of house (BOH) and front of house (FOH) procedures, sourcing and much, much more.
CASA also offers immersive externship apprenticeships for aspiring pastry chefs who learn through receiving direct, curriculum-backed training in the art of pastry from an experienced pastry chef. An artisan baker program and restaurateur program are also available with our same, real-world approach to the culinary arts. Whether it’s chef school, baking school, or training in restaurant management or ownership you’re looking for, it pays to look into our programs and potentially save yourself tens of thousands of dollars and get your career off to a solid start without being bogged down in debt.
This is a more holistic approach to culinary arts training in which all the various elements are work together to enable you to learn more in less time while you gain experience, confidence, and that other crucial element so many other culinary schools hardly even mention—connections.
The vast majority of those working in the culinary arts today landed work through connections. Unlike other industries, the world of cooking is very close-knit and it is common practice to fill positions through word of mouth and personal recommendations. Most positions are filled well before anyone has even thought of placing a job listing online or in a local paper. For this reason, it is essential that one builds relationships with the very same people who can refer them for jobs, give them pointers, and get them on the inside track to success. CASA gets you training from inside the industry, not outside of it. We place you right where you need to be to start fostering relationships and showing just how dedicated you are to mastering the craft. With our affordable, time-efficient approach to culinary education and training you’re gaining the skills, connections, and experience you need to succeed, starting right on day one, not months or years after you’ve graduated.
Learn more about our gourmet chef curriculum.